Question

You want to conduct a survey to determine the proportion of people who favor a proposed tax policy. How does increasing the sample size affect the size of the margin of error?

a. increasing n decreases E.b. increasing n increases E.c. increasing n will cause E to double in value.d. increasing n will not effect E.

Answer 1

a. increasing n decreases E

Explanation:

The sample size refers to the number (n) of units or observations taken from a population for a study. The results obtained from this sample size can be used to make generalizations about the entire population. The margin of error (E) is a measure of the sampling error or the percentage of the difference between the results obtained from the study and the true population value. The relationship between the sample size (n), and the Margin of error (E) is an inverse. That means

Sample size (n) ∝ 1/E

So, as the sample size increases, the margin of error decreases. This would be even more true if the accurate procedures for the experiment are followed.